Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew (stylized as Mtn Dew in the United States) is a carbonated soft drink that is available at Pizza Hut. The brand is produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman and was first marketed in Marion, Virginia; Knoxville, Tennessee and Johnson City, Tennessee with the slogan "Ya-Hoo! Mountain Dew. It'll tickle your innards." A revised formula was created by Bill Bridgforth in 1958. The Mountain Dew brand and production rights were acquired by the Pepsi-Cola company in 1964, at which point distribution expanded more widely across the United States and Canada. October 30, 2013 Between the 1940s and 1980s, there was just one variety of Mountain Dew, which was citrus-flavored and caffeinated. Diet Mountain Dew was introduced in 1988, followed by Mountain Dew Red, which was introduced and subsequently discontinued in 1988. While Mountain Dew Red was short-lived, it represented the beginning of a long-term trend of Mountain Dew being produced in different flavor variations. In 2001, a cherry flavor called Code Red debuted. This product line extension trend has continued, with expansion into specialty, limited time production, region-specific, and retailer-specific (Taco Bell, 7-Eleven) variations of Mountain Dew. Production was first extended to the UK in 1996, though this initial debut was short-lived as it was phased out in 1998. A similar but very different-tasting product returned to the UK under the name "Mountain Dew Energy" in 2010 and returned to Ireland in Spring 2011. As of 2009, Mountain Dew represented a 6.7 percent share of the overall carbonated soft drinks market in the U.S. Its competition includes Mello Yello, and Sun Drop; Mountain Dew accounts for eighty percent of citrus soft drinks sold within the U.S. Origin The Hartman brothers developed Mountain Dew as a mixer. Soft drinks were regional in the 1930's, and the Hartmans had difficulty in Knoxville obtaining their preferred soda to mix with liquor, preferably whiskey, so the two men developed their own. Charles Gordon, who had partnered with William Swartz to bottle and promote Dr. Enuf, was introduced to Mountain Dew when he met the Hartman brothers on a train and they offered him a sample. Gordon and the Hartman brothers subsequently made a deal to bottle Mountain Dew at Tri-Cities Beverage. The Hartman brothers also asked Coca-Cola for input on their own soda; however, the Coca-Cola Company refused their offer. Packaging Mountain Dew was originally Southern and/or Scots/Irish slang for moonshine (i.e., homemade whiskey), or poitín as it is called in Ireland. Using it as the name for the soda was originally suggested by Carl E. Retzke at an Owens-Illinois Inc meeting in Toledo, Ohio, and was first trademarked by Ally and Barney Hartman in the 1940s. Early bottles and signage carried the reference forward by showing a cartoon-stylized mountaineer. The first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels were devised in 1948 by John Brichetto, and the representation on product packaging has changed at multiple points in the history of the beverage. Logo PepsiCo (known then as The Pepsi-Cola Company) acquired the Mountain Dew brand in 1964, and shortly thereafter in 1973 the logo was modified as the company sought to shift its focus to a "younger, outdoorsy" generation. This direction continued as the logo remained the same through the 1970s, 1980s and into the late 1990s. Later updates to the logo were made in 1999 and again in 2005. On 15 October 2008, the Mountain Dew logo was redesigned to "Mtn Dew" within the U.S. market, as a result of a PepsiCo rebranding of its core carbonated soft-drink products. However, the variant flavors continued to use the previous design until May 2011, when it was revealed that the "Code Red", "LiveWire", "Voltage", and "Baja Blast" flavor variants would be given redesigned packaging, including new logos to correspond with the "Mtn Dew" style. The returning flavors "Pitch Black", "Supernova", "Typhoon", and "Game Fuel" were given redesigned packaging and logos for their re-release. Sidekick bottles Beginning in summer 2010, a secondary type of Mountain Dew bottles began appearing on select U.S. shelves. Designed by 4sight, a design and innovation firm, these bottles featured a sleeker design, smaller packaging labels, and a built-in grip. This design was dubbed "Sidekick bottles" and was in testing in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wikipedia:Indiana Indiana markets. Currently, the bottles are being found more and more in the south-east region, and could potentially replace the standard bottle design. Ingredients In its primary market of the United States, the ingredient composition of Mountain Dew is listed as: "carbonated water, High-fructose corn syrup (in much of the U.S.), concentrated Wikipedia:Orange_juice orange juice, Wikipedia:Citric_acid citric acid, natural flavors, sodium benzoate, caffeine, sodium citrate, erythorbic acid, gum arabic, calcium disodium EDTA, brominated vegetable oil, and yellow 5." The ingredient makeup of Mountain Dew varies based on the country of production. For example, in Canada, the sweetener listed is "fructose/sucrose" and (until 2012) it was caffeine-free by default. In response to consumer insistence on a more natural product, PepsiCo in 2009 released a limited run production of Mountain Dew Throwback, a variation consisting of sugar in place of high fructose corn syrup. Mountain Dew Throwback subsequently was re-released for brief periods (generally 8–12 weeks at a time), including a second wave from December 2009 to February 2010 and a third wave in the summer and fall of 2010. A fourth limited production run began in March 2011, lasting for a total of eight weeks before becoming a permanent addition to the Mountain Dew flavor line-up. Two unfounded urban legends about Mountain Dew ingredients exist. One is that it causes shrunken testicles and/or penis size. The other is that it lowers sperm count. Both myths are typically attributed to the dye Yellow #5 (tartrazine). Yellow #5 has never been scientifically linked to any of the alleged effects in the legends; nor has any other component of the drink. On the other hand, a scientific review study showed that among children (with and without ADHD) tartrazine can increase ADHD-like symptoms (see Stevens, Kuczek, Burgess, Hurt & Arnold, 2010). Thus, there is some evidence that Mountain Dew is at least as hazardous to health as some other caffeinated, sugar-sweetened soft drinks. A 12 oz can of Mountain Dew contains 54 mg of caffeine. Promotions AMP Energy AMP Energy is an energy drink distributed by PepsiCo under the Mountain Dew brand. Launched in 2001, AMP was originally known as "Mountain Dew AMP". From 2007–2008, several additional flavors of AMP were introduced. In 2012, AMP labeling and ingredients changed, as did the flavor and appeal, according to fans. The Mountain Dew branding was also removed from the cans during this change. Taco Bell's Mountain Dew Baja Blast Beginning in 2004, Mountain Dew has offered Taco Bell stores the exclusive right to carry Mountain Dew Baja Blast, a tropical-lime-flavored variety of the popular soft drink chemically formulated to taste good with their food. DEWmocracy 1 Beginning in 2007, Mountain Dew began a promotion entitled "DEWmocracy", which involved fans of the beverage brand electing new flavors, colors, names, packaging graphics and advertisements for upcoming Mountain Dew products. The campaign has been the subject of recognition within the advertising industry, cited as one of the earliest and longest-running examples of a consumer product brand employing crowdsourcing to make decisions which are traditionally made internally by employees. In its initial phase, Dewmocracy participation and voting was conducted via an online game. Television advertisements at the time featured actor Forest Whitaker asking people to decide the next new flavor of Mountain Dew. Online voters selected from three choices: Supernova (a strawberry-melon flavor), Revolution (a berry flavor), and Voltage (a raspberry-citrus flavor). Each included ginseng. On 17 August 2008, Voltage was announced as the winning flavor. It was released on 29 December 2008. According to Beverage Digest, sales of Dewmocracy flavors totaled 25 million cases in 2008. DEWmocracy 2 Mountain Dew announced a continuation of the Dewmocracy campaign –referred to as "Dewmocracy 2" – which launched in July 2009. A marked difference between Dewmocracy 2 and its predecessor is the involvement of a broader range of online components to conduct voting, expanding beyond the Dewmocracy website to include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and what is referred to as the "Dew Labs Community" – a private, online forum for the "most passionate Dew fans." In July 2009, Dew Labs sampling trucks distributed product samples of seven potential flavor variations. At the same time, 50 "Dew fanatics" were chosen based on their video submissions to the video website 12seconds.tv, and were shipped boxes of the seven prototype flavors. From the initial seven flavors, taste testers were asked to elect three final flavors for later release at retail stores. The three new candidate flavors were Distortion (a key lime flavor), Typhoon (a tropical punch flavor), and White Out (a smooth-citrus flavor). The three new candidate flavors were released on 19 April 2010 and voting lasted until 14 June. The following day, White Out was announced as the winner. Mountain Dew White Out was officially released for sale on 4 October 2010. A limited production White Out Slurpee (Mtn Dew White Out Freeze) was made available at 7-Eleven beginning in January 2011. Game Fuel In 2007, after using the term "Game Fuel" to direct their sodas to the video-gaming subculture, Mountain Dew officially announced a new flavor variant with the title. Coinciding with the release of the Xbox 360 game Halo 3, Mountain Dew Game Fuel sported a label that was almost entirely image-based, showing promotional artwork for the game and featuring the game series' main character Master Chief prominently. This variant remained on shelves for 12 weeks, and was discontinued afterwards. Two years later, the website for the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft was updated to reveal two Mountain Dew Game Fuel flavors would be coming to shelves in June 2009 and would promote the online video game. Shortly afterwards, official bottle art was released, and showed that one of the Game Fuel flavors would promote a certain player race in the game, while the other would promote a different race. It was also revealed that one of the two World of Warcraft Game Fuel flavors was exactly the same drink from the original Halo 3 promotion, with updated packaging. The second flavor was a new wild-fruit drink similar to the previously-released Pepsi Blue. Both drinks were given World of Warcraft-based packaging, and sported the newly-updated "MTN Dew" logo. Like their precursor, these two flavors lasted for 12 weeks and were discontinued. On 24 August 2011, Mountain Dew officially announced another return of the Game Fuel promotion on their Facebook page. The original citrus-cherry would once again be returning, along with a new tropical companion flavor. The announcement gave a planned release date of October 2011 and stated that the packaging will feature codes that grant players double experience points in Call of Duty's upcoming release of Modern Warfare 3. Both flavors were mailed out to Dew Labs members in early September 2011, a month before the planned release date. Later that same month, it was revealed through the Facebook page that Game Fuel would be arriving to the public in mid-October, though it would vary by market. Just as promised, Game Fuel began appearing as early as the first week of October, and like their precursors, these flavors were discontinued after 12 weeks of being on shelves. Game Fuel returned in October 2012 to promote Halo 4. Only the original citrus-cherry flavor will be available. This marks the first year that Game Fuel returned the direct year following the discontinuation of another Game Fuel (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012). Green Label Green Label Art Mountain Dew's Green Label promotion originated in 2007, when a small line of limited edition aluminum bottles were put into limited-release production, featuring artwork from a range of tattoo artists and other artists. This initial series marked the first use of the term Green Label Art to describe the use of artistic works on Mountain Dew product packaging. In June 2010, a contest entitled "Green Label Art: Shop Series" was announced, involving 35 independent skateboard retail store owners who partnered with artists local to their areas in order to design and submit future can artwork designs. Approximately one million votes were submitted by the conclusion of this contest in October of the same year, with Street Science Skate Shop – a store in Tracy, California – being named the winner of a cash prize. This winning can design is scheduled to appear on Mountain Dew cans at some point in 2011, according to Skateboarder magazine. Green Label Sound In 2008, a Mountain Dew-sponsored music label was launched under the name Green Label Sound. In December 2010, a Mountain Dew Code Red television advertisement was produced, incorporating the hip-hop artist Jay Electronica performing his song titled "The Announcement". The advertisement concludes with the tagline: "Hip Hop is different on the mountain", representing continued incorporation of hip hop (along with other music genres) into Mountain Dew promotional campaigns they also sponsor skateboarders like Paul Rodriguez J.R. Dew Tour/Green Label experience Sponsorship of individual athletes who participate in professional action sports has been a part of the Mountain Dew brand since the late 1990s, with present sponsorship including Eli Reed (skateboarder), Paul Rodriguez (skateboarder), and Danny Davis (snowboarder). Mountain Dew also sponsors its own namesake festival, "The Dew Tour", which is an action sports tour made up of multiple events held in five U.S. cities over the course of several months. The first Dew Tour was held in the summer of 2005 with events in skateboarding, BMX and Freestyle Motocross. In 2008 it expanded to add a "Winter Dew Tour" as well, comprising snowboarding and snow skiing competitions. It is "the most watched and attended action sports event in the world," according to Transworld Snowboarding magazine. In coordination with its Dew Tour sponsorship, a sponsored television show entitled Mountain Dew's Green Label Experience premiered on Fuel TV in July 2010, for the primary purpose of broadcasting interviews with action sports athletes from each of the stops on the Dew Tour. Green Label Gaming Under the term Green Label Gaming – coined in 2007 – Mountain Dew has broadened its sponsorship of independent video game designers and players. The brand is often the subject of media attention for its popularity among video game enthusiasts, as several flavors of Mountain Dew have been produced in partnership with video games such as Halo and World of Warcraft. In December 2008, Mountain Dew produced a 30-minute television special which documented independent gamers in Japan and the U.S., which aired on the Spike TV network. In 2009, Mountain Dew sponsored two prominent gaming events: the Independent Games Festival and the Game Developers Conference. Doritos Quest In 2008, Doritos debuted a mystery flavor known as "Quest", featuring a campaign of online puzzles and prizes to identify the Quest flavor. The flavor was later identified as Mountain Dew. FanDEWmonium In October 2010, Mountain Dew started the "FanDEWmonium" promotion, a competition in which new flavors would compete to become permanent similar to the two DEWmocracy campaigns, but with eight diet flavors instead of three regular ones. Five of the participating flavors were diet versions of previous DEWmocracy flavors: Diet Super Nova, Diet Voltage, Diet Distortion, Diet Typhoon, and Diet White Out. Another flavor, Diet Ultra Violet, was returning from its own limited release in 2009. The two remaining competitors were brand-new Diet flavors created specifically for the promotion – Crave (green apple-flavored), and Flare (berry-citrus-flavored). Each of the eight flavors was available for tasting at specific tour locations, and special cans were also mailed to some Dew Labs members. Also similar to the DEWmocracy campaign, those who taste-tested the Diet flavors were asked to go online and vote for which flavors they thought should be permanently sold in stores. After the first round of voting was completed, two flavor finalists were chosen to receive a limited release to store shelves for a final round of voting. Diet Voltage and Diet Super Nova were sold in stores for an eight-week period beginning in March 2011. After votes were cast, it was officially announced that Diet Super Nova had won, with 55% of all votes, and it returned in January 2012 for another 12-week limited release. Afterwards, it was removed from shelves permanently due to poor sales during its 12-week release. Back by Popular DEWmand On 7 January 2011, Mountain Dew posted on their Facebook that Pitch Black would return to the shelves on May 2011, also stating that this may be the start of many re-releases of old favorites. The Company promoted Pitch Black's return heavily with giveaways and contests. About a month before the planned release date, a photo was posted on a Mountain Dew Company worker's Pongr, which showed Pitch Black and 2008's Supernova. Two weeks before the release, Dew Labs announced the return of 2010's Typhoon in 2-Liter bottles exclusively at Walmart Supercenters. The 3 flavors were officially re-released to stores on May 2. At the same time of the DEWmand Promotion, Mountain Dew launched the Throwback Shack, a flash-based website where participators could enter to win exclusive Dew merchandise, including a "secret stash" of Mountain Dew Revolution, a losing competitor from 2008's DEWmocracy. The promotional advertisements were then taken down from the official Mountain Dew website. On a later date, Mountain Dew then confirmed via tweet that there would not be any more flavors returning 'by Popular DEWmand' for now, as it was only intended to be a summer program. ''The Dark Knight Rises'' Partnership After much speculation over a leaked Instagram photo of a potential new flavor, it was officially announced that Mountain Dew was teaming up with Warner Bros. Pictures' and Legendary Pictures' film The Dark Knight Rises and released a limited-edition flavor on 18 June 2012. A website — DEWGothamCity.com — was launched, on which fans were able to enter codes to access exclusive content and details on the movie before its 20 July release date. Some Mountain Dew products temporarily featured packaging to promote the movie, including thermochromic 16 oz. cans that change color when cooled. The limited-edition flavor, Dark Berry, was mixed berry-flavored, and was available for 8 weeks. Dub the Dew contest In 2012, Mountain Dew launched the "dub the dew" contest, in which they asked the online community to submit and vote on names for a future apple flavor that would be in villa pizza restaurants. However,users from 4chan raided the site and included names such as "Hitler did nothing wrong", which led to the contest being shut down by PepsiCo. It was not relaunched. Flavors and varieties Following the success of Code Red in 2001, over 30 subsequent flavors bearing the "Mountain Dew/Mtn Dew" name have been introduced. Original Mountain Dew, Caffeine-Free Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew, Caffeine-Free Diet Mountain Dew, Code Red, Diet Code Red, Live Wire, Voltage, Throwback, White Out, Diet Supernova, Johnson City Gold, and Game Fuel Cherry Citrus are the currently available drinks on the Mountain Dew line (some are region-specific and may not appear in certain areas). This table covers all Mountain Dew flavor variants to date. In mass media * Singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey sings about Diet Mountain Dew in her 2012 song "Diet Mountain Dew", from her début album ''Born to Die''. * The South Park episode "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining" refers to Mountain Dew and its high level of sugar and caffeine. * Homer Simpson opts to purchase "Crab Juice" instead of Mountain Dew in "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" during season 9 of The Simpsons. There are other references to the drink in The Simpsons, all of which depict a dislike for the drink. * Christian rapper KJ-52 raps about getting help for addiction to Mountain Dew in the song "Gimme Dat". * Jonathan Coulton referenced Mountain Dew in his song "Code Monkey". * Texas Ranger, youngest son of Ricky Bobby in the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, says he is "All jacked up on Mountain Dew" on the "Baby Jesus Prayer" scene referring to its high level of caffeine and the popularity of the drink in the south. * In the 2006 film Idiocracy, the President of the United States is named Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (portrayed by Terry Crews). This name reflects the degree to which commercialism has grown in the time period in which the movie is set. See also * Generic citrus sodas External links * Official website * Mountain Dew Wiki * KFC Wiki: Mountain Dew * Taco Bell Wiki: Mountain Dew Category:Drinks Category:Beverages